Most types of printing devices are equipped with replaceable components that have a life cycle during which the replaceable components are functional. At the end of the life cycle of a replaceable component, the component must be replaced for the printing device to continue to function properly.
For example, a toner cartridge is installed in a laser printer to provide toner for the printing process. As documents are printed, the toner supply is gradually depleted. When the toner supply is completely exhausted, the printer cannot print any further documents until the toner cartridge is replaced.
Unless a printer user has prepared in advance and has procured a new toner cartridge, then a problem arises when the toner cartridge runs out of toner and the user must delay completion of the print job. On the other hand, a user of multiple printers such as a business must keep an inventory of toner cartridges so an operational toner cartridge is always available. Having to keep such an inventory of toner cartridges imposes a financial burden on a business and utilizes valuable human resource time dealing with inventory control.
Most printers signal a user when a toner cartridge is nearing the end of its functional life cycle. The user then has time to procure a new toner cartridge before his current toner cartridge runs out of toner. Typically, this signal is in the form of a ‘toner low’ signal wherein a message is displayed to the user indicating that the toner supply is running low. Unfortunately, many users disregard this signal and continue to print from the toner cartridge without procuring a new toner cartridge.
Printing devices with automatic ordering functionality for replaceable components have been developed to take advantage of the time period between a signal that indicates a replaceable component is nearing the end of its life cycle and the end of the component's life cycle. In such systems, when an end-of-life signal is detected, a replacement component is automatically ordered for delivery to the location of the printing device. As a result, a replacement component is available when needed, but an expensive inventory of replacement components does not need to be on hand to prevent printing device down time.
There is a problem with such systems, however, in that once the automatic ordering system places the order, no further information is tracked for the order. Therefore, no provisions are made for instances when a component is unavailable or backordered, when an ordered component is not delivered before it is required, when a component is delivered to the company but does not get delivered to the location of the printing device, etc. As a result, a replacement component may not be available when it is required by a printing device and the printing device may incur undesirable down time.